College Council had its second meeting of the fall semester on Thursday, October 16, 2014, at the Lakeshore campus. In the interest of keeping the Humber community informed about upcoming events, new initiatives, and important issues, I will be continuing to report the highlights of the monthly meetings. For more information on any topic, or to give me feedback on the reports, please feel free to contact me directly, at lisa.salem-wiseman@humber.ca.
President’s Update
Humber’s President, Chris Whitaker, addressed Council, commenting on how quickly the semester is passing, and noting that there is a great deal of activity underway. He reported that the college is moving forward with business planning and budget development, and he encouraged everyone to share their perspective.
President Whitaker went on to explain that Ontario is entering a demographic change and the number of direct-entry students is decreasing. Humber is addressing growth pressures and investing in student success initiatives, new program development, professional development, and additional resources.
On September 26, Humber submitted a proposal to expand the University of Guelph-Humber by more than 2000 students. This will involve the construction of another large building just east of the new Learning Resource Commons (LRC). The LRC project is continuing to move forward, and will be fully operational by September. Once the building is occupied, the next step will be what is known as “the backfill process,” which will involve filling the 100,000 square feet of newly vacant space. Town Halls will be held at both North and Lakeshore campuses, to help determine the priorities that will drive decisions around how best to fill the vacated space.
President Whitaker closed his remarks by announcing that Laurie Rancourt, Humber’s new Senior Vice President Academic, will begin her tenure at Humber on November 1. One of her first major priorities will be the development of an Academic Plan to reflect the Strategic Mandate Agreement and connect with Strategic Enrolment Management processes.
Lakeshore Capital Projects Update
Wanda Buote, Principal, Lakeshore Campus, and Scott Valens, Associate Director, Capital Development, spoke about recent and planned developments at the Lakeshore Campus. The Lakeshore Campus now represents 35% of Humber’s enrolment, with 8,875,000 students.
The Lakeshore campus is very active within the surrounding community, and has participated in many community events and initiatives, including Etobicoke Lakeshore Culture Days, Doors Open Toronto, Move for Mental Health Awareness, Earth Week, and Little Libraries.
With the continuing expansion of the campus along Lakeshore Boulevard, there is a recognized need for a clear entry-point to the campus. The Welcome Centre, which will be located at the corner of Lakeshore and Colonel Samuel Smith, will serve as a beacon for the campus, and will contain services which include student services, the aboriginal resource centre, the test centre, a multifaith facility, and a wellness facility. It will also contain an interpretive centre for the area’s history.
Two more new buildings are also planned. The Athletic Centre was designed to fit with the surrounding urban geography and will be designed with a green roof and solar screening. It will include weight rooms, aerobic/dance spaces and community spaces. Finally, Building G will become home to the Centre for Entrepreneurship. The one-story glass box on the building’s façade will provide a generous amount of multi-function space.
Enterprise Systems Project Update
Barb Riach, Humber’s Registrar, Scott Briggs, Chief Information Officer, Information Technology Services, and Elaine Popp, Associate Vice President, Academic, provided an update on the Enterprise Systems Project, including a debrief of the registration process, and plans for moving forward.
The debrief process has involved a number of different groups, including the Academic Reference Group, the Enterprise System Steering Committee, the Deans Council, the PC Champions, schedulers, the CE Committee, College Council and the executive team. Feedback is being gathered about how implementation went and what could be improved going forward.
It was acknowledged that changes in process bring many challenges and result in a steep learning curve for staff and students. Barb Riach shared some statistics about issues that were directly related to process change. These include long waits on the phone at the Call Centre, inability to register, issues with block registration, issues with prerequisites, registering for courses at incorrect locations, and system performance issues. Also noted were CE-related issues such as fees not being displayed on post-secondary evening courses, courses and course descriptions missing from the CE website, and difficulty navigating flexible registration.
In the Winter 2015 registration cycle, several processes, such as final grades, and end-of-term progression, will be operating for the first time. The admissions module and business processes will be going live in November and testing, training and development activities will follow.
The intent is to improve the experience for students, faculty and staff for the Winter 2015 registration period. Recently, information has gone out to the schools for validation to ensure accuracy. New Call Centre staff are being trained, refresh training sessions are planned for schedulers, and communications to students are being reviewed. Planned service enhancements include program and class rosters, block-in-block registration, enhanced messaging on MyHumber, and a Parking/Administrative Services button.
Employee Engagement Survey
One of the foundations for success identified in the 2013-2014 business plan is to "invest in accomplished and engaged employees who are supported in delivering an exceptional student experience." The upcoming Employee Engagement Survey is part of Humber’s ongoing commitment to being a vibrant organization that responds to the needs of its employees. The survey will be anonymous and confidential, and the data will be processed by an objective third-party consultant. The survey will be sent by email to all full-time and part-time employees between November 17 and November 28. Watch the Communiqué for further communications about the survey.
In keeping with Council’s new mandate to report back to the President on key items, members of Council met in small working groups to discuss the evening’s presentations and to make notes that will be brought to the President.
The next meeting of College Council will be held on Thursday, November 13, 2014 at the North Campus.
